Radical Grace/the Lutheran Difference

Jesus' Triumphal Entry.  Lots of good stuff and again stressing an emphasis this Easter season on Jesus and what he has done for all humanity.  Behold!  You King arrives!  Also, a lot of churches are shifting emphasis on the traditional Palm Sunday from the triumphal entry to Jesus' Passion.  Good or bad? Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

Bill Marallo is an Adoption Recruiter for Intervention Services here in Central Florida, and he joins Pastor Gary and I to talk about Adoption from a human point of view, then he stay to have his mind blown about the Biblical Concept of Adoption. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

Jeffrey Dahmer died in Christ.  A good portion of the church does not believe this.  And that's sad.  But God's grace is that disturbing.  Really, truly disturbing.  God's grace is for the wicked.  You.  Me.  Jeffrey Dahmer.  And Pastor Roy Ratcliff, who heard Dahmer's confession and baptised him into Christ.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Ratcliff Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

Each and everyone one of us is guaranteed to experience the death of someone we love in our lifetimes.  You'd have to be a literal Scrooge who hated everyone to not be moved at the news of the death of a parent, a child, a friend...  In this edition of Radical Grace Radio we offer comfort from a surprising place in the Bible:  The Parable of the Wedding Banquet in Matthew's Gospel.   Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

On this edition of Radical Grace Radio we start off with, and never really get off of, the topic of the recent tornado touchdowns and the lives that have been touched by the devastation. What are Christians to think about all of this?  Is God angry at us and punishing us?  Again?   Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

On this edition of Radical Grace Radio we're joined by Dan Engle of both necessaryroughness.org and Lutherantimeout.org to talk about our recent online colaboration on a hymn for his Timeout Podcast.  The hymn is Savior when in Dust to Thee, and we had a blast doing it.  Also for a limited time, if you donate to either Lutherantimeout or Radical Grace Radio, you'll get a copy of the Master track (lossless studio version) of them hymn.  Also Lent for beginners.  Yes, that's you.  Get your repent on!   Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

We're certain that by now all of you have heard about the HHS (Health and Human Services) mandate stating that religious employers have to provide insurance coverage for birth control and how that effects various Church Bodies.  On this edition of Radical Grace Radio, we talk about Religious Liberty, because to be honest with you, we don't think most of you are exercising your Religious Liberties in the first place. If we thought we could get away with it at radio station, we'd demonstrate religious freedom with a few brews on air.Also, hear about two kinds of righteousness.  Righteousness before God, and Righteousness before men. Don't miss it.   Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

This edition of Radical Grace Radio is the beginning of a re-release of four programs that began with an episode that goes into Justification and Propitiation.  If I were to take a microphone with me right now out on the street and ask Christians how important the forgiveness of sins is to the Christian Faith, I’m certain that nearly all them would agree that it is most important.  But if I were to ask this same group of Christians how is it that God forgiving sins amounts to salvation, there would be all kinds of answers.  The problem with many of the answers is that too often what is said is that salvation comes from either us having cleaned up our act, or that we’ve quote “believed” unquote, and that these things are the conditions we must meet in order to stand before the Holy and Righteous God.  On the one hand there are people who teach that Salvation comes from obeying the law and that obedience is rewarded by God with Salvation, while on the other hand more Christians would teach that it’s by faith

In this second part of a two part edition of Radical Grace Radio, Pastor Gary Held and I continue a discussion on what is Church, what is truth, and something that only a True Christian church can do, and that is deliver God's forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ.  Guilt is a real problem that we face, not because we have a psychological problem of Guilt, but because we truly are guilty before God.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to find a Church that has the solution to that problem?   Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

In this first part of a two part discussion on what is a church, Pastor Gary and I start with a problem that we discussed last week about people not knowing what church is, or even if it's Christian or not.  It's interesting that people would equate the word "church" with anything other than Christian, and it's even more interesting that people, rather than actually find out or ask what church is, make up a definition on the fly.  But what if one day you suddenly find that you need a church?  How would you recognize a church?  Is it where they sing songs?  And listen to a guy "preach" about living a so called Christian life by giving you pointers about morals and such? What if it's not about that at all?  What about a place where God has promised to be for you?    Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

We've had two other programs devoted to this topic already...  Now we feel compelled to offer a third one after Christians have attacked a young atheist for winning a court case to remove (of all things) a prayer banner.  The prayer itself asks for grace to be kind and be a good sport and be honorable...  too bad the Christians attacking this girl couldn't see that.  http://jesusfetusfajitafishsticks.blogspot.com/2012/01/ahlquist-screenshots-if-by-christian.html Also, we discovered something interesting about people these days.  The word "church" does not, in people's minds, automatically mean it's about Christian anything.  In the minds of many people, Church could be Muslim or Christian, or any given sect of any religion.  Strange, of course, since the word used to be exclusively Christian.   Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

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Ever have anyone tell you about "Using" God's name?  Using it with Authority?  You hear a lot about that, but have you ever heard someone talk about "Wearing" God's name with Honor?  When Aaron was told to how to bless Israel, it was so that God would put His Name on the people.  You have His Name on you via your baptism.  How do you wear His name?   Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

Burnt Impressions...  Offers you a burnt offering of Jesus' face burnt onto your toast!  You can eat your toast while playing with your Jesus Bobble Head...  Here's the thing.  Most of you agree that Jesus' name shouldn't be used as a curse word.  But seriously, there are other ways to misuse his name.  Making a buck off Jesus' name is another way.  Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancakeVisit Pastor Gary Held's Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/garyheldVisit our Websitewww.RadicalGraceRadio.com  

Closed for Christmas?  Jesus never closes heaven to those who answer the call!  So why would churches be closed on Jesus' birthday?  So let's talk Messiah then.  The annointed one, the Christ, was born to fulfill a promise made centuries before that.  A promise that extends to all the earth, a promise that all the earth would be blessed through the seed of Abraham.  And there he was, lying in a feed trough...  And while the world despised him, people like you and me know him as the Lord of hosts, the one who we sing "Joy to the world, the Lord has come".  In this special edition of Radical Grace Radio, we talk about "Messiah"...  What else would you do on December the 25th?    Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

What else would you talk about if you're going to talk about Religion and Christianity this time of year?  Come one, the Advent of our King is near!  Imagine for a second, the advent message given to Mary all those years ago:  The power of the Most High will overshadow you.  Imagine that!  One day, his power will overshadow us all!  That's good news!  This should be a season marked only by that news!    Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

In this edition of Radical Grace Radio, we talk about the Radical Favor of God...  And how that famous verse, "for God so loved the world" points to the antecedent favor of God, where in time past God freely chooses to love the world, and THEN send his only begotten son...  Mabye a lot of you hadn't thought of that.    Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

D. L. Moody once said "I can write the Gospel on a dime", and ever since then that's exactly what the Church at large seems to want to do.  But if you do that, you wind up leaving out a full, robust proclaimation of the Gospel, leaving people with some "spiritual laws" to keep or who knows what.  Whatever it is, it usually winds up leaving the believer in a quagmire of confusion.  So this episode is dedicated to a different way of seeing the Gospel and all it's parts, seeing them rather through the lense of Christ and the work of the Godhead in history rather than through lense of "getting people saved".   Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

Think of the Gospel as a snowball rolling down the hill.  As it rolls it picks up speed, and carries along with it anyone that gets in it's way.  To the unbelieving world, it looks like arms and legs sticking out as the snowball rolls along, but this is the picture of you bowled over by God's good news and carried along by the spirit of God.    Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com    

The Parable of the sheep and the goats...  Is not a parable at all.  What?  How can we say that?  Well, it's simple, really, but you're going to have to listen to the show to find out why we would say that.    Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com